What I don't understand about the rush to AI is why people don't *want* to think. Thinking is the most pleasurable, gorgeous, exciting, sophisticated thing I do, and skipping that to get to an output and have more time to spend, I don't know, on my phone or something just seems insane to me.

"Using LLMs makes your work bland, vague, and wrong, and impedes the development of skills ... That development only happens with sweat, practice, shitty first drafts, errors, time, and revision." it makes your work BLAND, VAGUE, AND WRONG against-a-i.com/syllabus-lan...

this exists it is called thinking

Do other writers out there have opinions about using a thesaurus? I'm using mine a lot at the moment, but am wondering whether it's reducing my own ability to think of vocabulary (which seems like a pretty essential skill). Am always wary of 'shoulds' around writing, but your experience is welcome!

I am now offering writing teaching and mentoring! See my website for details ... (spoiler: I probably won't tell you to delete your adverbs) rosalindbrown.com/teaching-and...

“benzimidazobenzophenanthroline”

Two Women Teaching a Child to Walk https://www.wikiart.org/en/rembrandt/two-women-teaching-a-child-to-walk

Come see this face in person this Saturday!

THIS. The water and electricity consumption of LLMs mean we should NOT BE USING THEM, even to critique/mock them – there are plenty of examples of them being terrible, we don't need to generate any more – just boycott them now.

Three days until this – can't wait! Harriet's book TO REST OUR MINDS AND BODIES is brilliant and you should definitely read it

PRACTICE is one of @theguardian.com's paperbacks of the month! "The great strength of Practice is Brown’s gift for the romance of the quotidian... The character of the solipsistic, over-earnest, pretentious, self-consciously ascetic Annabel is brilliantly done" www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

The former Attorney General of Israel, Michael Benyair is now calling Israel's actions in Gaza genocide. "To eternal shame. Jews, who suffered a genocide 80 years ago, are committing genocide in Gaza. Shame, rage, and sorrow"

Wrote one (soon out in this lovely paperback!), and currently reading the other. At least I'm consistent.

Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst https://www.wikiart.org/en/remedios-varo/saljendodel-woman-psychoanalyst

Didn't realise how materially and rhythmically the LRB punctuates my life until my paper copy of the last issue didn't arrive and I was edgy like an addict in withdrawal

the more i understand cyanide, the more hesitant i am to eat it this, to me, is a paradox

honestly most of my ideas are big coffee ideas

they computed too greedily, and too deep

The UK paperback of PRACTICE is out next month! I am henceforth modelling myself after this print (adapted slightly for the cover) by Lucie Spartacus: jumper, book, coffee, yellow. When is it time to go back to school?

I will be at the Edinburgh Book Festival this year! talking with novelist Harriet Armstrong (whose book I am excitedly about to start reading) and Sasha de Buyl. Thursday 14 August, 5.30pm, in the mysteriously named "Venue B". Tickets on sale from Saturday! www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

"the fantasy of knowing without thinking" #AI

Imagine if the UK actually focused hard on lifting children (or indeed anyone at all) out of poverty www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Practice is on Lit Hub's list of 25 paperbacks out in June! (in US and Canada – UK paperback in August) I had a sort of pleasant panic attack perusing this list because there are so many on it I want to read ... lithub.com/living-with-...

I am now offering writing teaching and mentoring! See my website for details ... (spoiler: I probably won't tell you to delete your adverbs) rosalindbrown.com/teaching-and...

I feel remarkably OK with this putative outcome. (good whole thread)

It’s just over a year ago since I created my embroidery Emma, inspired by the Jane Austen novel. So come with me and take a look back… 😉🪡🌿🌺📚 *completely freehand stitched without patterns, paint or sketch, everything you see is thread. #stitchedart #thesewingsongbird

oh wow

On what is a really difficult day, here are some resources for our trans friends and allies. Solidarity 💜 goodlawproject.org/resource/sup...

Continuing to be a legend

The North American paperback of PRACTICE is out 24 June and the cover is oh sooo beautiful

@oliviasmith.bsky.social hey, I'll be in Oxford the weekend after next for a gaudy – if you're in town on the Sunday (morning/lunchtime) would be lovely to have a coffee!

Perfect spring French vibes (edited highlights, with minor spoilers) www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4cY...

Truly the story that keeps on giving

Oh yes, Homer’s famous “Tes Thdpssssps.” 👍🏻

My 5yo stepson has recently started accusing my partner (his dad) of "faffing" which we are both overjoyed and horrified about

ok so once I have acquired my swashes, how do I set about buckling them? Or do I need to find a buckle and then learn how to swash it?

So one of the things that I think is lost on AI proponents is what I call the card catalog effect, a thing I shouldn’t call it because a lot of people probably have no experience with a card catalog.

It's what's known as a DOS attack - denial-of-simplicity-and-strength attack. To inhibit capacity for abstraction, creativity and useful theory. @kjhealy.co kieranhealy.org/files/papers...

Very happy to see Harper's Magazine nominated for an ASME Fiction award – and thrilled that my story is one of the named pieces! 🤞 for them www.asme.media/asme-announc...

right I have to read this book

I so need to read this book

It's January, the month that PRACTICE is set in! Specifically it's set at the "worn-out end of January", but if you're already feeling worn out (if?? let's say "given") then it might be just the book you need right now. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/prac...

Delighted to be on this list! And adore the idea that in PRACTICE "there are sequences about complex masturbation fantasies that are funny and also kind of regal in their self-possession" – isn't that what we all aim for, after all

I was going to suggest to my partner that we could read the xmas Carol to each other in the run-up to Christmas but I'd better specify that we must do it in a flat monotone lest we risk 9000000000 boos

PRACTICE is also a Review 31 Book of the Year – reviewed so gorgeously here by Ben Philipps 💝 "Brown’s prose shares with Woolf a quality of mystery inhabiting precision, or even a mysticism, what is said and what can’t be circling and surrounding each other." oh wow review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

PRACTICE is also a TLS Book of the Year (@thetls.bsky.social) an NPR Book of the Year (@npr.org) and a Lit Hub Book of the Year (@literaryhub.bsky.social) and a really excellent choice of Christmas present! Here by coincidence is a website that sells books: uk.bookshop.org

Absolutely delighted that PRACTICE is on @slate.bsky.social's 10 Best Books of 2024! (also keen to read at least three others on that list ...) slate.com/culture/2024...